More bonuses for teachers?

The State Board of Education is mulling a new plan to award monetary bonuses to certain teachers in elementary and middle schools.

The plan would award fourth- and fifth-grade reading teachers and fourth-to-eighth-grade math teachers bonuses of up to $5,000 per teacher based on their students' performance on end-of-grade exams.

Funds would be allotted to pay teachers who are in the top 25 percent of teachers in the state, and the top 25 percent of teachers in their local school district, according to the improvements students show on the exams for reading or math over the previous year. Charter school teachers would only be eligible for the statewide bonus.

The bonuses would be allocated at $2,150 per qualifying teacher, up to $5,000 per teacher. The bonuses would be awarded in January.

“I think that it’s a great idea to offer more money to teachers,” said Allison Miller, a fifth-grade teacher at Lowell Elementary School. “It’s an underpaid job, in my opinion. So a bonus, I think it’s a good thing. It’s a step in the right direction.”

As Miller’s students created wind speed gauges called anemometers with paper cups and other materials, she discussed the salary challenges that she and other teachers have faced during her 15-year career as a public school teacher. She said incentives such as the proposed bonuses can help many North Carolina teachers who straddle the poverty line and help to attract more teachers to the profession.

New teachers in North Carolina who possess only a bachelor’s degree currently make a base salary of $35,000, with incremental pay raises with successive years of service up to a maximum of $51,300. Local school districts also provide a supplement to teachers. In Gaston, that salary supplement averages about $2,650 per teacher.

About halfway into her teaching career, Miller worked to earn her National Board Certification and studied to earn her master’s degree -- two of the limited ways public school teachers are able to earn additional money over their base salary.

Miller feels it a positive that the bonuses are tied to growth rather than whether students show proficiency in reading or math. She called it an added incentive for teachers to work with students at all ability levels to enhance their growth. Essentially, students who score below proficiency have the most opportunity for growth.

She also feels that teachers can still integrate innovative lessons and learning techniques in the classroom even though the bonuses are linked to exam scores that reflect student knowledge of specific state education standards.

“Our team works together to plan, we are looking at those standards that the students are expected to learn and know,” said Miller. “If we’re using those standards to prepare our lessons then it should show up in our testing.”

The state recently allocated similar bonuses to third-grade teachers whose students show the most growth in reading on end-of-year tests. The state also paid bonuses to teachers of specific career and technical education courses whose students receive industry-approved credentials and certificates, and teachers of advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses.

But it’s not all roses. And teachers who also play a major role in preparing students for success in kindergarten through second grade, and other grade levels ineligible for bonuses, are being left without the same opportunity.

It’s a notion shared by many teachers in the N.C. Association of Educators like Donna Hayes, the vice-president of the Gaston County chapter of the association and a first-grade teacher at Lowell Elementary. Hayes says doling out bonuses to just a slice of the teacher population effectively “drives a wedge between teachers,” and essentially undermines the efforts of educators like her.

She’s also skeptical of whether state coffers can even provide the money necessary to award such bonuses. The state would distribute about $4.7 million to provide the reading bonuses, and about $7.9 million for the math bonuses.

The State Board of Education is scheduled to vote whether to approve the measure during its monthly meeting in November. Even with approval, the plan would still need to pass through the N.C. General Assembly.

You can reach Eric Wildstein at 704-869-1828 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteEric.